“I was the 12th player drafted,” says the former San Diego Rockets star, who came out of Marquette that year. “But there were only nine teams, 99 players in the whole league. A lot of rookies didn’t make it. So I remained an amateur for two years, playing AAU ball, hoping to make the 1964 Olympic team.”

Kojis, who will be given the Ernie Wright Humanitarian Award Monday night at the Breitbard Salute to Champions gala for co-founding (in 1978) Whispering Winds Catholic Camp in Julian (a non-profit gathering place for family and friends that annually serves 9,000 guests), did eventually make it to the NBA. A two-time all-star with the Rockets, he played 13 years with six different teams and scored 9,948 points before settling in San Diego for good.

Kojis, 74, tells a great story. He had been drafted by the Chicago Packers, which became the Baltimore Bullets, but although he didn’t make the team, the Packers still held his rights. He was playing well for the amateur team, scoring more than 30 points a game, when he was approached by the owner of the Pittsburgh Rens of the fledgling and soon-to-be-defunct American Basketball League.

“I told him I was the property of Chicago. He never even introduced himself,” Kojis says. “He said, “No matter. I’ll get you.” So I got plane tickets and a limo driver met me at the airport. I had dinner at the hotel. First class. And then I met with him.”

Kojis and the owner discussed money, but Don didn’t get far with this guy, who told him college kids ask too many questions.

“Then he said, “Ah, you can’t play anyway,” and left,” Kojis says. “I went downstairs and the limo was gone. I checked to make sure I had a return plane ticket. I never saw him again, until years later, when there was a big picture of him in the paper. He was the new Yankees owner. George Steinbrenner.”

In 1963, Kojis went to Baltimore, then Detroit, then Chicago (Bulls) before becoming part of the expansion draft and moving on to San Diego, where he played from 1967-70. His exit was hastened by Rockets owner Bob Breitbard, who after a Sports Arena lease scuffle with City Hall, eventually sold the team to a Houston group.

“I got into a contract hassle with Bob,” Kojis says. “He shipped me off to Seattle for cash. Alex Hannum was the coach then and he went into the locker room and yelled, “Who the hell is cash? Can I get 20 points out of cash?””

Kojis played with and against some of the greatest to play the game, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Wes Unseld, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and finds it difficult to watch today’s NBA.

“Those were good years,” he says. “I think it was a much better brand of basketball. They claim we were too rough back then. There were only two refs and they didn’t make many calls.

“Now I’ll watch a game I want to watch, maybe the playoffs.”

Other than the fact that there is a basket at each end of the court, the game barely resembles basketball as purists remember. The NBA allowed players to get away with so much the rules eventually changed themselves. It did not change the game for the better. Just as an example, Marco Polo didn’t travel as much as Michael Jordan.

“I heard John Wooden on radio once and the announcer asked him what he would change about the pro game,” Kojis says. “Wooden said, “Nothing.” The exasperated announcer said, “Jordan travels all the time; Shaq bounces people.” And Wooden said, “Nothing. I guess I would just use the rules that are there. You can’t do these things, but I understand it. If you make calls against the superstars you aren’t pleasing the fans.”

“I coach kids in school and they walk all the time. They tell me this is how it is. Ever see LeBron get a call for palming? I don’t know what constitutes a foul anymore. How do you adjust?”

Well, to the NBA of today, it just doesn’t matter. Maybe you saw last weekend’s All-Star Game. I saw snippets of matador defense. Not exactly the All-Star games Kojis played in.

“We played hard; I think it meant more then,” he says. “The coaches didn’t want us to get hurt, but we played hard. Now this. It was terrible.”

Blessed with three granddaughters who all live within 15 minutes of his home here, Kojis now calls himself a “professional baby sitter.”